This paper reports the mail survey results of the marketing practices of 158 Chinese small firms in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that broad small firm marketing principles, though specifically generated from the Western countries, may not be fully suitable for some specific socio‐cultural contexts, for example Chinese society in Hong Kong. Thus, care should be taken before making generalizations about marketing in Western situations and in assuming that marketing tools and techniques are equally applicable across all places. Socio‐cultural influences should be considered when attempting to understand marketing practices of Chinese small firms.
This paper uses an institutional perspective to examine the interplay among government intervention, manufacturing systems and business approaches and its impacts upon the marketing activities of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. An integrative approach, blending the narrative method and content analysis, is adopted to analyse 391 published news stories about Chinese owner-managers in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and to disentangle the effects of environmental differences. SMEs in China, which come under strong government influence, carry out minimal planning in marketing and their marketing activities are implicit. They adopt a relation-oriented marketing approach and place emphasis on building relations with government agencies. Most SMEs in Hong Kong operate under the original equipment manufacturing systems and they tend to invest minimal amounts of time and money in marketing. SMEs in Hong Kong adopt a transaction-oriented marketing approach, place emphasis on pricing, product service and sales forecasts, and adapt promptly to market changes. Taiwanese SMEs operate in a politically constrained but economically free environment. They invest substantial amounts of time and money in marketing and fostering customer and dealer relations. Upgrading to the original brand manufacturing systems, Taiwanese SMEs develop their own brands and adapt their marketing plans explicitly and substantially in response to the specific marketing environment. Based on the research results, a tentative schema is proposed depicting the interplay and its impact on the marketing practices of Chinese SMEs.
Over the years, research studies have found sex stereotyping in television advertisements. However, those studies typically examined western television commercials only, leaving open the question of the cultural influence on advertising's sex-role portrayal in emerging Pacific-rim markets. Presents an extension of a previous study undertaken by Gilly in 1988 to analyse sex roles in advertising and compare content analysis findings for Chinese and Singaporean television advertisements. Results reveal that stereotypes are found in the advertising of Singapore and China, but are manifested in different ways. Discusses implications for western advertising managers.
This paper reports the survey results of marketing practices of 87 Chinese small ®rms in Mainland China. The ®ndings suggest that the broad small ®rm marketing principles, though speci®cally generated from the Western countries, contribute to the success of Chinese small ®rms in China. Interestingly, however, the speci®c marketing practices of these small ®rms are dierent from those of their British counterparts. Research results indicate that higher-performing Chinese small ®rms adopt the customer orientation, use a proactive approach in strategic planning, are aware and make use of marketing planning tools, adopt long-term pro®t objectives, participate actively in new product development, and introduce new ways of doing business. Also, the higher-performing Chinese small ®rms have well-organised marketing organisation and encourage free communication¯ow and interaction among employees. To have better control over marketing activities, higher-performing Chinese small ®rms frequently use marketing control devices. Thus, care should be taken before making generalisations about marketing in Western situations and in assuming that marketing tools and techniques are equally applicable across all locations.
MANAGERIAL AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS. Higher-performing Chinese small ®rms put emphasis on prior analysis of market needs and use a proactive approach in strategic marketing planning.. Higher-performing Chinese small ®rms undertake comprehensive situation analysis and are aware and make use of marketing planning tools. . Higher-performing Chinese small ®rms adopt long-term pro®t objectives and are innovative and creative in new product development and business practices. . Higher-performing Chinese small ®rms have a well-organised organisational structure to support the marketing communications. . To have better control over marketing activities, higher-performing Chinese small ®rms frequently use marketing control devices. . The research ®ndings suggest that the Western marketing paradigm may not be fully suitable for some speci®c sociocultural contexts: for example, small ®rms in Mainland China. . Care should be taken before making generalisations about marketing in Western situations and in assuming that marketing tools and techniques are equally applicable across all locations.
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